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Is the Internet rewiring our brains? [Infographic]

I don’t know about you, but as a guy who works around 40 hours per week on the Internet, I can’t help but feel a little concerned about this. According to this infographic, the areas of my brain responsible for speech, memory, motor control, and other important areas could be 10 to 20% smaller than the same ones in “regular” people. I’m not exactly sure what this implies, but it doesn’t sound too good to me. Has anyone among you guys read more on this subject? Do you agree with this infographic or not? Let us know in the comments section below!

8 Responses to Is the Internet rewiring our brains? [Infographic]

It's a normal evolutionary thing to drop the parts of the organism that become obsolete and focus on the more important ones. I spend ~100h per week in front of my computer (work & home combined) and I can clearly see the ways that my mind is functioning better than the minds of the lesser folk that don't use computers that much or at all. If I become antisocial or less empathic because of this then it's just the way it goes – you can't stop progress :-).

It seems this study was conducted by Facebook, from the way the lead in reads. I wouldn’t believe anything that came from that useless, P O S, site. I find my concentration just fine, even tho I am getting older and I spend more hours on the web than I used to lately. This survey was more than likely conceived and conducted by someone under 25 years old, who according to doctors who study the brain are considered to be “brain dead” because their frontal lobe isn’t fully developed until they turn 25. Let that put that in their pipes and smoke it.

It seems to be something of "Let's collect all these studies, throw them in a blender, and base conclusions on what flys out." It's an infographic that has no scientific basis. It even contradicts itself in some places.

I don't particularly mind what the findings suggest. We adapt, as a society and, if we're collectively degenerating certain social skills in favor of others, then we'll do it together and adapt our communication accordingly. I hesitate to conclude that the internet must be stopped and that we should all resume a paper/pencil lifestyle. The internet is too rad for that. Instead, we'll just keep having 8 second conversations with our buddies and those who aren't connected will become weirdos that will eventually just go away. No harm done, right? If we can't find out what they're doing on Facebook or LinkedIn, then meh. Google something else.

To me there is always a warning flag with charts like this. Where's the real data? Where are the studies? How were the studies done? How did they get these stats? How many people were studied? What were the variables involved? Anyone can do an infographic by putting numbers on images and yet sometimes the charts ring truer than not true. I'm afraid this one rings not true to me.